Morcombe trial to finalise this week
1:36

The trial of the man accused of murdering schoolboy Daniel Morcombe is expected to conclude this week.

Sky News

10 Mar 2014

News

THE jury in the murder trial of Daniel Morcombe told his accused killer’s confession to undercover police “leaves no doubt of his guilt”.

In his closing address to the jury, Crown Prosecutor Michael Byrne QC told the jury it was significant that Cowan elected not to give or call evidence.

He said accounts given by the defendant had been untested and should be considered when the jury decided what weight to give them.

He said Cowan admitted in an interview with police at Nambour that he ``probably’’ wouldn’t have told them if he had abducted Daniel Morcombe.

Mr Byrne said the Crown submitted Cowan was more likely to tell the truth to ``his supposed and purported friends than to people he actually knows are police officers’’.

He said there was no evidence of how Cowan came upon the knowledge of where the body had been left and the clothes abandoned.

``He knew where these things were because he is the one who killed Daniel Morcombe and put them there,’’ Mr Byrne said.

Mr Byrne said the jury was entitled to draw inferences from the evidence they heard during the trial.

``We are asking you to draw some rational, logical and reasonable inferences from the known facts,’’ he said.

He said the first was that Brett Cowan acted with a murderous intent to kill and the second was that he must have had special knowledge of the whereabouts of Daniel’s clothing and body because he was involved in the disappearance.

Mr Byrne told the jury the compelling features of the confessions would leave them with no reasonable doubt of Cowan’s guilt.

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